EUGENE, Ore. – The Northwest Christian University women’s basketball team finished their season on a high note on Saturday, knocking off Southern Oregon 60-56. NCU was led by Lindsey Shearer who scored twelve points to set a new single-season scoring record for the Beacons.
The Beacons hot shooting continued from Friday night as NCU hit five three pointers, three from Aly Bruns and two from Jess Anderson. Southern Oregon had taken the early 2-0 lead but NCU rallied to go ahead by eleven points, leading 27-16 at the intermission.
The Raiders blazed out to a smoking start to the second half, using a 17-2 run to take a 33-29 lead with 14:19 remaining. The Beacons responded by scoring the next nine points over a five-minutes stretch as NCU held a 38-33 lead with 10:48 to play. The teams then battled through four lead changes over the next four minutes before NCU took the lead for good at 46-45 on a layup by Shearer.
“It definitely wasn’t a pretty game, but I didn’t anticipate it would be, given the time of the year and the nature of the game. Bottom line is we gutted it out to get this win. Maybe a month ago we couldn’t pull this one out. I’m very proud of our girls. SOU is a very athletic team.”
Shearer completed a well-rounded night for the Beacons (12-18, 4-14) with a double-double, scoring 12 points with 16 rebounds and four steals. Bruns, Katie Collins and Martha Taylor each scored eleven for NCU with Bruns adding a game-high five assists. She was 3-for-6 from three-point range. Anderson capped off her career with a ten-point effort, adding a pair of blocked shots.
Southern Oregon (14-15, 5-13) was led by Angelica Cahee, scoring 15 points along with seven rebounds and four assists. Krysten Copeland scored 10 points and led SOU with eight rebounds and Nalani Hernandez came off the bench to score eight. Southern Oregon had nine blocks shots in the game including two from Hernandez and three from Kiara Moore.
With the victory, Southern Oregon finishes in a tie for seventh in the CCC and will take either the seventh or eighth seed for the upcoming Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament.
The season ends for Northwest Christian who finish tied for ninth in the conference.